An associate epidemiologist, cardiologist, and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Pradhan joined CIRT in 2005. She has joint appointments in the Division of Preventive Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Cardiovascular Medicine Division at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital, West Roxbury Campus. Her research interests span the related areas of inflammation, diabetes, and peripheral artery disease. Her early work demonstrated a strong link between subclinical inflammation and the development of diabetes. She continued this line of research as the Principal Investigator of the LANCET clinical trial which studied insulin therapy as a strategy to reduce inflammation among patients with diabetes during the initial stage of this disease. Other research activities pertain to the role of adipokines and other biologic markers having combined metabolic and inflammatory functions in the pathogenesis of diabetes and its vascular complications. As a recipient of a career development award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study risk factors for peripheral artery disease, Dr. Pradhan is also keenly interested in evaluating risk factors and underlying mechanisms that distinguish individuals at high risk for future coronary artery disease as compared to lower extremity artery disease. Dr. Pradhan is also a recipient of NIH funding to evaluate mechanisms of statin-associated diabetes in the JUPITER trial.

Dr. Pradhan completed her cardiovascular medicine fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and continues her clinical activities as an echocardiographer and clinical cardiologist at the VA Boston Healthcare System, West Roxbury Campus.